Lace & Lavander
by Ohhaithars
Summary: Is Moriarty actually back? No one has seen from him since he appeared on every screen in London. Are Sherlock and his friends all in danger? Action, adventure and romance ensue. M for smut and graphic violence. SHxMH and JWXMM


pre style="font-size: 9pt;"ttI dont own Sherlock. I just love it. :pbr /br /br /  
A soft ping reverberated around the room disturbing the silence of the morgue. Sherlock Holmes glanced over at his phone, his hands still resting on the knobs of the microscope he was using. A text notification was on the /  
Text from one of the homeless network. He unlocked his phone and read it. emUnknown woman has entered 221b./em He sighed and stood. He would have to come back later to finish his work with R. ponticum samples. He was currently working on a case involving a man who was found dead in an abandoned and decrepit house.  
The man in question was currently resting on the slab in front of Molly.  
br / "Are you leaving Sherlock?" Molly looked up from the corpse she was examining.  
Safety glasses perched at the end of her nose and gloves on. The scalpel in her right hand was just hovering above the dead man's skin.  
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"Yes." He murmured as he tapped out his response. Cemontinue watching. Be there in 20 /em  
"Oh, alright. See you later then." Molly flashed a polite smile and went back to performing the autopsy. Sherlock nodded and left.  
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Molly didn't watch him go. She was used to him leaving at the drop of a hat. It was simply the nature of his job and the nature of the man when she stopped and though about it. It had been 6 months since Sherlock had returned and it was as if he had never left. He came to the morgue frequently to use the equipment or examine a body for a case often staying for extended periods of time while Molly worked away. They had settled into a quiet but comfortable routine. Since Sherlock's return he was much more pleasant to Molly but never referred to what she had done for him.  
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She preferred it that way. She didn't want Sherlock to feel indebted to her in any way. She did what any decent and able person would have done and it saved his life and the lives of her friends. True, faking paperwork and using the kidnapper's body basically as a stunt double was illegal and a tad immoral but it was for the greater good.  
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Her attitude toward the world's only consulting detective had changed though. She was no longer a stuttering flustered mess around him. Molly was more confident and felt like Sherlock's equal. She did still find him attractive and acknowledge that a part of her would always have a soft spot for him but it no longer ruled her besides she had more recent heartbreak to deal with.  
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She had called off her engagement with Tom 4 months ago. His, for lack of a better term, sheer stupidity at the wedding had been the last straw.  
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The words meat dagger still echoed in her head occasionally and Molly inwardly cringed when it did. She knew her initial interest in Tom had been physical. He looked like and dressed like a certain detective she knew but soon she discovered he was a pleasant and low-key /  
This was a soothing change for Molly who had been bullied by Sherlock and used by Jim. He didn't seem to mind Molly's profession either, which was the best Molly could hope for. Most men would turn and run when they heard what she did for a living. Molly could understand why, death made people uncomfortable and cutting dead people open was a morbid business. br /  
But as months turn into years she knew Tom wasn't for her. Firstly, he didn't like Toby and he made it apparently. He would complain of cat hair on his clothes and jacket. He wasn't very intelligent either. "Meat dagger" wasn't the first time he had said something stupid. Molly glanced up at the clock on the opposite wall of the morgue. Her shift would be over in 10 minutes.  
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"Okay Mr. Fletcher. Lets wrap this up."

The cab pulled up to Baker Street, Sherlock paid and entered his flat. He paused before climbing the stairs to his own apartment. Pemerfume. Sweet and familiar. Can't quite place it./em He climbed the stairs swiftly and entered. Sitting on the brown leather couch was the aforementioned woman.  
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He scoffed when he saw her face. He knew this woman well.  
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"Oh, there you are Sherlock. I figured you would take your time getting back from St. Barts." The women flashed him a cocky grin and propped her feet on his coffee table. He narrowed his eyes at her and took his usually spot in his armchair. Sherlock didn't bother asking how she knew where he was. He knew she had her own means of finding out needed /  
"I would have taken my time if I knew it was you." He replied as he took in her appearance. He could see the traits that she shared with her sister more now then ever. The few brief times they had met were not ideal for finding familiar features in her /  
The sisters had the same dark hair at approximately the same length and high cheekbones but the woman in front of him had more of a button nose and fuller lips. Irene Adler had much colder and hauteur features. The woman in front of him had a more inviting and pleasant face. emHalf siblings. Different mother. American accent. /em His eyes drifted to long legs resting on his table and caught a large big leather purse on the floor with a large iced coffee sitting next to it. emMuch taller than her sister. Closer to my height. Still can't kick the stimulants./em  
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"Why are you here Ariana?" Sherlock asked.  
"I'm dropping by to relive the good old days with you." She teased as she tuck a lose strain of hair behind her ear. " And don't call me Ariana. It's Aria." He cocked an eyebrow at her but didn't interrupt her. emForward personality. Dull./em br /  
"While you were meandering around Europe for two years dismantling Moriarty's criminal network did you happen to kill a man named Sebastian Moran?"  
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"No."br /  
"Neither did I." She sighed heavily. "You and I have a problem then." Aria pulled several Ziploc baggies out of her purse and plopped them on the coffee table. Sherlock leaned forward and examined /  
One contained a snubbed out cigarette bud, one had a fired .22 bullet with fragments of wood still stuck in it, and the last one had a note that said "IOU".br /  
The door to 221B opened again and John stepped in to the apartment. Aria craned her neck to see John and offered him a hand over the back of the couch.  
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"Doctor Watson! Nice to finally meet you. Love the blog." She turned back around and smirked at Sherlock. "Do you really not know the solar system?" John took her hand and shook it while trying to unsuccessfully suppress a smile. "Thanks." He said as he sat in his signature armchair. His attention focused on the newest client to grace Baker /  
Sherlock ignore the jab as he rifled through the bags. "This evidence is old. Why didn't you come sooner?"br /  
Aria studied Sherlock for a minute before answering. "You know I have my own methods of finding out the truth. I admit I did hope it was a copy cat. The case was very highly publicized and I wanted to believe that they were dead."  
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"What case?" John asked. There were no traces of good humor in his face anymore. Although he missed the beginning of the conversation he had a terrible feeling as to what case she was referring to. "Who are you again?" he added rather rudely.  
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"Ariana Adams. Sister to Irene Adler. Half sister to be precise. Grew up in America. Recovering drug addict." Sherlock quipped. "Don't trust her for a second, John. She is just as dangerous as Irene and rather more violent."  
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"It's Aria! I will not correct you again!" She snapped.  
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"Aria is a ridiculous name." Sherlock said as he waved his hand dismissively in her direction. Aria's anger dissipated as quickly as it came and she smiled. br /  
"This coming from a man named Sherlock whose siblings are called Mycroft and Sherriford."br /  
John looked from Sherlock to Aria, a confused and irritated look on his face. "Who is Sherriford?"  
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A delighted expression crossed Aria's face as she stood up laughing. "Wait until I tell him! Mycroft is a shoe in for favorite brother now!" John shot Sherlock an offended look and Sherlock huffed /  
She grabbed her things still laughing. "Be a good boy Sherlock and try and see if you can gather any more information from that evidence I left you. I suspect you will find Seb's DNA on that cigarette bud. That's his preferred brand. I will be back very soon. Ta."

"Can you just run it by me one more time Sherlock?" DI lestrade was rubbing his temples as he looked up from the corpse laid out on Molly's slab. br /  
Sherlock sighed impatiently. It had been a rather long and annoying day for him. Thanks to Ariana's interfering john was furious. He never INTENDED to keep his brothers' identity a secret. It just never came up. He wasn't close to any of his family members so why would he go out of his way to bring them up in conversation? It was irrelevant information. br /  
"This man was poisoned inspector and rather cleverly. Notice the excessive amount of salvia that Molly reported in the autopsy." Sherlock's gloved hands squeezed the sides of the mans face causing his mouth to open slightly. Copious amounts of congealed salvia still clung to the man's teeth and tongue. "Also, his clothes have vomit and excessive sweating stains." Sherlock gestured to the mans clothes that were folded neatly in evidence bags. br /  
Lestrade suppressed the urge to gag. "And this is significant in what kind of poisoning. . . ?"  
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"This is seen in rhododendron poisoning." Sherlock replied as he removed his purple rubber gloves with a snap. br /  
"I didn't know you could poison people with rhododendron." Interjected Molly who was elbows deep in another corpse's chest. br /  
"It's very rare Molly. I believe there was a famous case in Pompey in 69 BCE.(1)" Molly made a noise of interest and surprise as she removed a rather enlarged heart and put it in a scale. br /  
"So how was he poisoned and by who?" Lestrade asked as he scribbled the information in his notepad. br /  
"This is Mr. James Fletcher who was poisoned by his angry lover. She is a herbalist. Apparently he didn't want to share his lotto winnings with her. You can find her at the pharmacy that employs her. Here's the address." Sherlock handed Lestrade a dirty yellow piece of paper with black spidery writing on it. br /  
And with that Sherlock turned and left the morgue. He got a taxi and arrive at Johns flat twenty minutes later. He knew he needed to apologize to the Doctor and thought that since he had time to calm down now was his chance to make his peace. His newborn daughter Olivia Elizabeth Watson surely helped John calm down even more than his time away from Sherlock. br /  
He needed John's help now that Ariana had approached him. Dangerous people are on the move and now there was more to factor in then ever before. Arianas words drifted into his mind. em"While you were meandering around Europe for two years dismantling Moriarty's criminal network did you happen to kill a man named Sebastian Moran?"  
br /em  
He hadn't heard of this man before and knew it couldn't be good. True Moriarty's face had been plastered on to every Telly 3 months ago in London but that wasn't proof that moriarty was alive. Just that someone had done a lot of leg work to get that 10 second clip broadcasted over London. br /  
But why? Sherlock thought as he entered John and Mary's apartment. His train of thought was interrupted by John's only mildly agitated greetings of hello. br /br /br /br /br /_br /I got this info from wikipedia. Sorry! I dont know about all that stiff off hand. br /br /Hello! This is my first sherlock fanfiction. Im really excited about it. feel free to review. I hope everyone appreciates all the little easter eggs i put in. please take pity on my terrible grammar skills. english is my first and only language but i just suck! :) /tt/pre


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